English for Science and Mathematics

English for Science and Mathematics

“He said pupils had the option of answering the two subjects entirely in English, in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese/Tamil (mother tongue) or a combination of all three.” Alimuddin Md. Dom, TheStar

Quick question, why Chinese/Tamil is an option for UPSR?

Anyway I’m against this notion, English for Science and Math. This is a highly debatable topic. No right, no wrong, pure opinion. The aim here is to produce quality youngster who’ll one day thrive Malaysia.

English is THE lingua franca. If you don’t know English you can bid farewells to globalization. On the other hand, Bahasa Melayu is our National Language. Between these two, where you do stand?

Comprehension. It’s never wrong to teach kids in any language, but it is, if they don’t understand anything. You’d probably need to double your effort if you’re going to teach them in English, the vocab and the understanding. If it’s in Bahasa Melayu, you’d only need them to focus on understanding.

Accidental Filtering Process. You have to admit, kampung kids are not exactly smart when it comes to English. Reading is already tough for them, what more to understand. Hence, they’ll reject English whole-heartedly, leaving young teachers crying in disbelief. English is so foreign to them, it’s like teaching Americans math, but in Malay.

The kids who gave up on early education, will probably end up in the low earning class group after failing to enter matriculation or A-Level. Thus creating an accidental filter when actually we want to bridge the gap between urban and rural economy.

Elitist. When half of the kids gave up education, we’ll create a significant group of elitist. Those who are educated and those who are not. Elitist will strive to make a better living and will not refrain to exploit cheap labors. Since Elitist resides in the middle class, they’ll create more inflation. (inflation is imminent actually)

Whole Education. Education is not a social obligation, it’s compulsory. Everyone is given the chance to learn and tap a better living. If English is the major set backs for kids, then brush it off. I want everyone to be educated, so they won’t accept anymore bull shit from the government.

More Resources in English. How important is it for us to look up for O Levels (and below) materials? Close to non. Anyone who has a degree can point and shoot the subject. Not unless we’re talking about higher education.

Germans, Japanese and French are among the top 3 nations who teaches everything in their language. What’s stopping us?

Chasing Globalization. We are so determined to put ourselves on the world map, we forgot we’re still easterners. You look up to any mat salleh in KLCC, when in actual fact, you have more money than they do. Anything from westerners are good, abandon ours. That’s the kind of mentality Mahathir brought upon us.

“We must embrace globalization and be easterners at the same time.” It’s like wearing baju melayu to a hindu temple. WTF?

Unity. Bangsa Malaysia? Non bumi go on and on about this hoping one day they’ll be accepted like bumis, bumi accepts this term half heartedly, at the same time fear of losing their piece of share. If I am the Education Minister, I will abolish vernacular school. For decades, they have been teaching subjects in their language. That alone is racist.

So, in order to make believe that Bangsa Malaysia is real, I’ll forfeit other language and enshrined Bahasa Melayu as the core language. You can learn Mandarin or Tamil from tuition centers or as electives.

Communication Barrier. How many non-Malay can speak fluent Bahasa Melayu? Isn’t it sad to note that OUR national language is beeing seconded to English? If we taught everything in Bahasa Melayu, we can finally bid our farewells to the likes of “ini balang manyak murah” or “kasi ini barang murah punya you angkat“.

The Private Sector. Many private sectors questioned local university incompetent products. Who to blame for bad English command? The student themselves. You’re telling you’re good at physics but failed to present yourself in English? And here we thought you have outsmarted others.

Wasting money. How much did the government spend on rewriting books, standards, allowance, short training courses just to revamp Bahasa Melayu? What if from the beginning we stick to Bahasa Melayu? That money could be used to build more schools in rural area, increase teacher’s wage by KPI, better still, waive tuition fees.

Poor Teaching. “First, we disturb-disturb the water.” Enough said.

Conclusion. Revert back to Bahasa Melayu. Refer back to this old saying “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa“. It’s our only chance to unite our kids under one roof. So let language be no barrier to a greater success.

ps: I told you it’ll be in GREAT detail. Unfortunately, I deleted half of it. You should be thanking me.

pss: Alimuddin Md Dom was my head master. He talked about Edward de Bono and his many hats in our weekly assembly, of course I slept the entire speech.

Luqman

11 Jul 2009

I’m embarassed by another of our govt’s flip-flop policy trying to please everyone but ending up looking like a fool!
If you never give a chance for a long term policy like english education in maths & Science to continue its entire course, you would never realise the benefits as enjoyed by an earlier generation before BM was given prominence. After all only maths & science are in English, the rest are still in BM. sigh…when can we leave politics out of it?